Clothes Testing

[APG]

I have taken several items of clothing from a customer (with her permission) so they can be sent to Proctor and Gamble for testing. I have already told her what the problem is but she is not listening.
Can anyone help with the address or telephone number to send the items to, as customer is very friendly with Ann Robinson.
Thanks for your help
Andy G

[kwatt]

Hi Andy,

I won’t be able to get you details immediately but I will PM you that information later tonight once I have it for you as I’m out all day today. I will get you the correct place for it to go for analysis though, bu tbear in mind it’s normally not a fast process, can take a week or two to get results.

You will also need to know the detergent being used currently as well as any other treatment, softener used.

What sort of marking is it you’re getting because I have put up some of the common ones in the articles section. I still have more to do but they take a fair bit of time re-doing graphics etc.?

K.

[APG]

Re: Clothes Testing

Hi Ken

The staining is mainly on white clothes. These stains are like a fine clear oil marking, no colour at all and there is no regular pattern.
The bearings in the machine are fine but when I pulled back the door seal you could see the residue comfort. It was not the regular comfort, it was concentrate. So went through proceedure of customer education again saying: dilute the comfort with water and then pour into tray, run the machine through on a boil wash to rid of residue plus use a descaller, bla, bla bla.
Well, after asking to see the products she uses, the following was noted. Detergent was a detergent and fabric conditioner all in one and the comfort was a concentrate. Advised customer she was way overdosing the machine with fabric conditioner which was the cause of all her troubles. Would she have any of it. “NO WAY!! I am always careful with the dosage as my son has exthma which is getting worse due to my washingmachine not cleaning properly” she said.
I cannot argue with someone who cannot help themselves by not taking good friendly advice so I asked to take the items away to which she said yes. She has been told not to expect the items back due to testing proceedures and could be looking any time between now and three weeks away before hearing anything.

Thanks Ken, I’ll buy you a pint or two next time I see you
Andy G

[kwatt]

Is this on polyester by any chance? Just a thought.

But you are probably correct as conditioner will produce that sort of staining, should appear “greasy and waxy” according to the bible.

To quote (and it’s a pint of JD for this typing :lol:)…

The Bible wrote:Liquid rinse added fabric conditioner making direct contact with the fabric , dispencer malfunction, or pouring directly on fabrics. These stains have a definite waxy feel. On white or pastel fabrics, these stains may appear the same colour as the product (e.g. green, yellow or blue)

Can be caused by dryer added fabric conditioner sheets. These stains will be translucent in appearance and are caused by too hot a dryer temperature or too small a dryer load.

Hope it helps and, no, she won’t get the clothing back. 😉

K.

[APG]

Re: Clothes Testing

Yep, on polyester and cottons.
Any chance I could borrow your bible so I could photocopy it 😆
One yard of JD coming up at the next meeting for u.
Andy G

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: Clothes Testing

What’s this fountain of knowledge on stains K? Any chance of seeing more of it?

[kwatt]

Re: Clothes Testing

“The Bible” as I call it, is a book given to me by Proctor & Gamble years ago called “The Art Of Laundry” and gives a quick visual explanation of common stains and laundry problems. Each engineer got one and I managed to aquire one for the office, it is IMO, invaluable. As was the training on the wash process that I got as it means that when you get a problem like this you can actually answer the questions being asked by the customer.

The book also details diswashing problems along with explanations on how it works, both laundry and dish. There is some of it on the site in the articles section, but I need to get time to do more, which I will get soon I hope to complete that.

The fantastic use it gets put to is when you get a customer with such a complaint as Andy got, as you can prime the customer to the problem before you even arrive, Then it’s just a case of educating them when you get there. Of course the customer will blame the detergent or the machine, they’ll never admit its their fault as they don’t understand the wash cycle, fabrics or detergents, but there again, unless they have an issue they’re unlikely to ask.

There are no copies available currently, I have asked. But we are working on something on this area (shocker!), just watch this space.

As for the polyster Andy, if it greasy looking marks on 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} poly, then it’s food grease spatters basically and the advice is to pre-treat with liqid and wash at the maximum temp for the garment to get rid of them. 😉

And, due to a little experiment I did I can assure you that Ariel will remove grease better than any other detergent, if the customner uses it correctly. 😕

K.

[Alex]

Re: Clothes Testing

Proctor & Gamble have an excellent booklet all in colour, “The Essential Art Of Laundry” There are pictures of most eventualities, and I’m informed it is available on their web-site. (Could not find it myself though).

Give P&G a ring on 0800-028-3393 and maybe they will send out a copy. This would be a contender for the most useful tool category. Once you show a picture to a customer showing the effects of hair mousse, they can see for themselves and usually agree with your findings and suggestions.

Alex

[kwatt]

Re: Clothes Testing

Did you get the cheap one Alex or the one in a ring binder? The ring binder one is the one I’ve got and it is excellent and you’re right, I’d say it was a contender for the most useful tool I have as it just stone dead kills a lot of arguments with customers blaming the wrong thing. When you show the customer exactly the problem they have in glorious technicolour they usually back off just a tad. 😉

As I said though, there are none currently available and it’s been out of print for some time now from what I can gather. 🙁

I don’t think that the full book was on the site as it gets pretty techy with full explanations of the wash process, both laundry and dish, so it is beyond what most customers would want to know, or in many cases have the ability or notion to understand.

K.

[Alex]

Re: Clothes Testing

Try this link.

http://www.ariel.co.uk/ask_the_stain_wizard.html

The booklet I have is version 4 Dated 2004 and is very comprehensive indeed. The link above will help though.

Alex

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: Clothes Testing

I find this one very useful too
http://www.bold2in1.com/en_UK/problems.html

[kwatt]

Proctor & Gamble also make Bold, it sits below Ariel in the pecking order and in performance with Daz below that. 😉

K.

[nickki]

Re: Clothes Testing

If you need stuff typed up to help out fellow UK Whitegoods members, I’m more than happy to help. Can type in my sleep and will get it on screen in no time, plus have scanner, photoshop and dreamweaver to get images and text all into a readable format.

[kwatt]

Re: Clothes Testing

Thanks a lot Nikki for the generous offer, but it needs doing directly into the articles in admin and a bit of messing about with Acrobat & Photoshop to get the pics right… then there’s the resolution issues. 🙄 But honestly, the time consuming bits are the graphics and the formatting.

I’ve not got that much left to do really, it’s just finding the time.

K.

[kwatt]

Re: Clothes Testing

Just for you Andy…

http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/modules.p … age&pid=68

http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/modules.p … age&pid=87

I think you’ll find it’s one or tother. 😉

K.

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